Comparative Public Policy Emergency Management and Problem-Solving

Posted: January 19th, 2023

Crisis Management Simulation Paper Prompt
Welcome to a role-playing simulation of crisis meetings of the National Security Council dealing with a new global pandemic. The theme of this crisis decision-making simulation is: What should the United States do to respond to an increasingly severe outbreak of a deadly virus? You will be assigned roles as national security “principals.” During the simulation, you will work as a team with another student to represent this role carefully as participants engage in a series of de- liberations on the best response to a hypothetical policy crisis scenario. Your goal is to represent your assigned role and to develop strategies and interagency agreements that you believe will most keep the U.S. population safe. You will make decisions about how to proceed in the face of a public health emergency, how to prepare and protect the community, and how to ensure such a crisis can never happen again. More guidance on what to expect—and how best to prepare—is included in the Simulation Handbook. Paper Prompt: For this individual research and writing assignment, you should develop a paper that outlines your assigned role, examines its historical involvement in crisis response, and artic- ulates a position and appropriate policy proposals for this situation. The paper should be orga- nized as follows
: -Role: What role are you playing? Develop a paragraph with a brief introduction of your assigned role and the guidance you have received about policy positions.
-Bureaucratic Perspective: What is your government agency or department? What are your primary activ- ities and operations?
Has your department ever disagreed with others over policy issues? Examples?
-Pandemic Planning: Does your agency or department have established protocols for addressing public health challenges like epidemics?
-Past Experience: How did your agency or department become involved in epidemic responses in the past 10-20 years, such as dealing with the Ebola crisis, SARS, and COVID-19? -Conclusion:
Based on your role assignment and profile, along with recent IRL history, are you optimistic or pessimistic that the government can handle a new public health crisis, and why?
Crisis management papers will be 3-4 page, typed, double-spaced papers that describe your ori- entations and development of policy proposals.
They are due in advance of the simulation, and are worth 10% of your class grade and is due on Monday, March 1st, by 10:00 am (Woo-time). Students should submit a Word document through the Moodle assignment submission portal.